Examining the role of Scotland’s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community: analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data

Alison M Elliott; Anne McAteer; David Heaney; Lewis D Ritchie; Philip C Hannaford

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007293

Examining the role of Scotland’s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community: analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data

Alison M Elliott, Anne McAteer, David Heaney, Lewis D Ritchie, Philip C Hannaford

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14 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems Scotland's nurse-led telephone advice service (NHS 24) is contacted about and explore whether these vary by time of contact and patient characteristics.

DESIGN: Analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data.

SETTING: Scotland, UK.

PARTICIPANTS: Users of NHS 24 during 2011.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems NHS 24 is contacted about.

RESULTS: 82.6% of the calls were made out-of-hours and 17.4% in-hours. Abdominal problems accounted for the largest proportion of calls (12.2%) followed by dental (6.8%) and rash/skin problems (6.0%). There were differences in the type of problems presented in-hours and out-of-hours. Most problems (62.9%) had lasted <24 h before people contacted NHS 24. Out-of-hours calls tended to be for problems of shorter duration. Problems reported out-of-hours most commonly resulted in advice to visit an out-of-hours centre and in-hours advice to contact a general practitioner. Most of the service users were female and from more affluent areas. Use of the service declined with age in those over 35 years. The characteristics of users varied according to when NHS 24 was contacted. The number of calls made by an individual in the year ranged from 1 to 866, although most users (69.2%) made only one call. The type of problem presented varied by age and deprivation, but was broadly similar by gender, rural/urban status and geographic area. Call outcomes also varied by user characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine how the public uses NHS 24. It has identified the patterns of problems which the service must be equipped to deal with. It has also provided important information about who uses the service and when. This information will help future planning and development of the service.

Original language	English
Article number	e007293
Number of pages	12
Journal	BMJ Open
Volume	5
Issue number	8
Early online date	26 Aug 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007293
Publication status	Published - 26 Aug 2015

Bibliographical note

Date of Acceptance: 15/06/2015

Funding This work was supported by the Chief Scientist Office, ScottishExecutive (grant no. CZH/4/692).

Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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Examining the role of Scotland’s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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Lewis Ritchie, OBE
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Applied Health Sciences - Mackenzie Chair of General Practice
- Institute of Applied Health Sciences
Person: Clinical Academic

Cite this

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title = "Examining the role of Scotland{\textquoteright}s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community: analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data",

abstract = "OBJECTIVES: To examine the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems Scotland's nurse-led telephone advice service (NHS 24) is contacted about and explore whether these vary by time of contact and patient characteristics.DESIGN: Analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data.SETTING: Scotland, UK.PARTICIPANTS: Users of NHS 24 during 2011.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems NHS 24 is contacted about.RESULTS: 82.6% of the calls were made out-of-hours and 17.4% in-hours. Abdominal problems accounted for the largest proportion of calls (12.2%) followed by dental (6.8%) and rash/skin problems (6.0%). There were differences in the type of problems presented in-hours and out-of-hours. Most problems (62.9%) had lasted <24 h before people contacted NHS 24. Out-of-hours calls tended to be for problems of shorter duration. Problems reported out-of-hours most commonly resulted in advice to visit an out-of-hours centre and in-hours advice to contact a general practitioner. Most of the service users were female and from more affluent areas. Use of the service declined with age in those over 35 years. The characteristics of users varied according to when NHS 24 was contacted. The number of calls made by an individual in the year ranged from 1 to 866, although most users (69.2%) made only one call. The type of problem presented varied by age and deprivation, but was broadly similar by gender, rural/urban status and geographic area. Call outcomes also varied by user characteristics.CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine how the public uses NHS 24. It has identified the patterns of problems which the service must be equipped to deal with. It has also provided important information about who uses the service and when. This information will help future planning and development of the service.",

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note = "Date of Acceptance: 15/06/2015 Funding This work was supported by the Chief Scientist Office, ScottishExecutive (grant no. CZH/4/692). Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.",

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AU - McAteer, Anne

AU - Heaney, David

AU - Ritchie, Lewis D

AU - Hannaford, Philip C

N1 - Date of Acceptance: 15/06/2015 Funding This work was supported by the Chief Scientist Office, ScottishExecutive (grant no. CZH/4/692). Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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N2 - OBJECTIVES: To examine the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems Scotland's nurse-led telephone advice service (NHS 24) is contacted about and explore whether these vary by time of contact and patient characteristics.DESIGN: Analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data.SETTING: Scotland, UK.PARTICIPANTS: Users of NHS 24 during 2011.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems NHS 24 is contacted about.RESULTS: 82.6% of the calls were made out-of-hours and 17.4% in-hours. Abdominal problems accounted for the largest proportion of calls (12.2%) followed by dental (6.8%) and rash/skin problems (6.0%). There were differences in the type of problems presented in-hours and out-of-hours. Most problems (62.9%) had lasted <24 h before people contacted NHS 24. Out-of-hours calls tended to be for problems of shorter duration. Problems reported out-of-hours most commonly resulted in advice to visit an out-of-hours centre and in-hours advice to contact a general practitioner. Most of the service users were female and from more affluent areas. Use of the service declined with age in those over 35 years. The characteristics of users varied according to when NHS 24 was contacted. The number of calls made by an individual in the year ranged from 1 to 866, although most users (69.2%) made only one call. The type of problem presented varied by age and deprivation, but was broadly similar by gender, rural/urban status and geographic area. Call outcomes also varied by user characteristics.CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine how the public uses NHS 24. It has identified the patterns of problems which the service must be equipped to deal with. It has also provided important information about who uses the service and when. This information will help future planning and development of the service.

AB - OBJECTIVES: To examine the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems Scotland's nurse-led telephone advice service (NHS 24) is contacted about and explore whether these vary by time of contact and patient characteristics.DESIGN: Analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data.SETTING: Scotland, UK.PARTICIPANTS: Users of NHS 24 during 2011.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of the type, duration and outcome of the symptoms and health problems NHS 24 is contacted about.RESULTS: 82.6% of the calls were made out-of-hours and 17.4% in-hours. Abdominal problems accounted for the largest proportion of calls (12.2%) followed by dental (6.8%) and rash/skin problems (6.0%). There were differences in the type of problems presented in-hours and out-of-hours. Most problems (62.9%) had lasted <24 h before people contacted NHS 24. Out-of-hours calls tended to be for problems of shorter duration. Problems reported out-of-hours most commonly resulted in advice to visit an out-of-hours centre and in-hours advice to contact a general practitioner. Most of the service users were female and from more affluent areas. Use of the service declined with age in those over 35 years. The characteristics of users varied according to when NHS 24 was contacted. The number of calls made by an individual in the year ranged from 1 to 866, although most users (69.2%) made only one call. The type of problem presented varied by age and deprivation, but was broadly similar by gender, rural/urban status and geographic area. Call outcomes also varied by user characteristics.CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to examine how the public uses NHS 24. It has identified the patterns of problems which the service must be equipped to deal with. It has also provided important information about who uses the service and when. This information will help future planning and development of the service.

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DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007293

M3 - Article

C2 - 26310396

SN - 2044-6055

VL - 5

JO - BMJ Open

JF - BMJ Open

IS - 8

M1 - e007293

ER -

Examining the role of Scotland’s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community: analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data

Abstract

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Lewis Ritchie, OBE

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